Commission awards almost EUR 330 million in research grants to post-doctoral researchers and to innovative training programmes

What will the next generation of solar cells look like? What is the most effective way for cities to manage floods? These are just two of the challenges that will be tackled by the new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellows which have been announced by the European Commission today.

Following the 2017 bid for post-doctoral research funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the Commission is awarding grants worth EUR 248.7 million in total to 1,348 researchers with the highest potential to make a game-changing impact on our society and economy.

Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, said: “We are today recognising the potential of 1,348 excellent, internationally mobile researchers who faced intense international competition to be awarded a fellowship. The projects they will work on will tackle some of the biggest challenges our societies face, helping to build a resilient, fair, competitive Europe. In addition, the EU is now investing in truly innovative research training programmes for doctoral candidates and experienced researchers, enabling them to make full use of their talents and empowering the organisations supporting them to gain competitiveness on a global scale."

The funding awarded to the researchers, which is part of the EU's Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation, represents an increase of €30 million compared to the previous call. Under another strand, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes the Commission announced that 8 doctoral and 13 post-doctoral research training programmes of outstanding quality – from nine EU Member States and three associated countries - will receive cofunding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions of €80 million over five years.